Wamp Doubles Down on Slanderous Mailer Denials

Image Credit: Calvary Chapel Chattanooga – from Conservative Conversations event

By Mark Caldwell, Chattanooga –

To be clear, I would not type the first word about this if Weston Wamp, who I have known for many years, had told me the truth about all the negative mailers friends connected to his campaign have funded for him. I have personally contacted him twice about these ads and mailers, and twice he has refused to be truthful. I expected better.

Now, a second round of these deceptive and disgraceful negative mailers has saturated the county, and once again, they are funded by the so-called “Chattanoogans for Responsible Government” PAC supporting Wamp.

After the first round, Wamp repeated to me what he was stating publicly when confronted about the mailers: “My campaign is not involved with any outside group.” He had an opportunity to tell the truth about this — to acknowledge the connection between his campaign and the PAC. But he denied any connection. 

The truth is, his campaign IS directly connected to that PAC. It was created by Adam Boeselager, the partner of Wamp’s campaign manager, Nick Macco.

When I asked Weston, “So you and Nick didn’t know anything about this?” his response was to not respond. I asked, “Are you going to correct the record?” No response.

Astoundingly, the connection between Wamp’s manager and the PAC funding was not mentioned in the Times Free Press articles about Wamp’s public denials, perhaps because he was endorsed by Pam Sohn on the leftist side of the TFP editorial page. Sohn declared, “If you’re asking for a Republican ballot for this election, mark it for Weston Wamp.” Of course that was also a signal to those casting the now more than 3,000 Demo-crossover ballots, most likely for Wamp.

When I asked Weston about round two of the negative campaign mailers circulated Wednesday, he insisted, “I still have not seen today’s mail pieces.”

I asked again, “So you and Nick did not know what Adam was doing? That’s the question that gets to the truth, not parsing the truth.” No response.

If you don’t know what “parsing the truth” means, think back to the most high-profile example in decades — Bill Clinton wagging his finger at the country and saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” At some point in his political career, Clinton started telling little lies, and a man who will lie about little things will eventually lie about big things.

Of course Weston is just running for County Mayor, not president, so who cares about the little lies?

Despite the fact negative campaigning works with voters a candidate assumes are too ignorant to discern between what is true and what is not, his two Mayoral opponents have agreed not to sling the same slanderous sludge Wamp has approved. The irony of their taking the high road is, that the person most exposed to factual challenges about specious claims about his income, occupation and the doors opened by his last name, is Weston Wamp.

But, the Wamp political legacy is riding on this campaign — which apparently is why they have resorted to lies and deception.

For a guy who claims he’s not a politician, Weston’s double-talk denials have all the earmarks of the worst kind of politician. And he has been at it for years, including his secret recording of a conversation with a 2014 political opponent in an apparent effort to ensure that opponent would not endorse another opponent. Two days later he did endorse Weston’s other opponent, and Wamp lost.

Weston’s assertion that there is no connection between his campaign and the mailers is at best parsing the truth and at worst, an outright lie, which reflects poorly on all of us who have supported him and his dad over the years. I genuinely  thought he would correct the record but I was wrong.

I am reminded of this advice from Thomas Jefferson: “It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.”